Taking its Fender-badged-stereo partnership to the next logical level, Volkswagen showed the Beetle Fender concept at last year’s Frankfurt auto show. We’ve now learned that the car will indeed reach dealers, albeit somewhat watered down.
Among the details to be ditched for production are the guitar-enabled subwoofer in the trunk and the iPod dock/head unit with its vintage-style mesh surround. (A sub will be fitted, but our sources tell us that you’ll have to connect your axe via the aux-in port or via Bluetooth using smartphone apps. Volkswagen previously offered this capability, sorta, when it gave away crappy, aux-plug-equipped guitars with some of its models a few years ago.) The most unlikely of the concept’s features to make it to production, the dashtop tube amp, will be tossed, too. Bummer.

The sunburst-patterned dash trim will carry over, although we haven’t confirmed if it will be real wood or some facsimile thereof; the latter is highly likely. The concept also featured retro tailpipes, some red exterior trim, and a lowered suspension, details that shouldn’t be too hard to adapt to the assembly-line version. The suspension, for example, could simply be the Beetle Turbo‘s, which is lower than that of other models. No firm date was given for availability, but we anticipate the special edition will arrive before the end of the year.